Abdelhak Nouri wakes up after more than two years in a coma

Ajax midfielder Abdelhak Nouri has finally woken up from a coma after two years, 8 months and 19 days. 

Nouri suffered severe and permanent brain damage in the summer of 2017 after he suffered a cardiac arrhythmia attack on the pitch during a match.

The doctors, who had tried stabilising him, later concluded his brain suffered extensive damage.

The 22-year-old did wake up a year later but was unable to move or communicate on his own.

The midfielder stunned the doctors by miraculously waking up from Coma as they revealed he ‘sleeps, eats, frowns and burps but is very dependent,’ as reported by Dutch website AD.

When his brother was asked about Nouri’s condition, he said, “Good. He has not been home very long, we take care of him there now. I must say that since he is at home it is going much better than before in the hospital.”

“He is aware of where he is, he is back in a familiar environment with his family. He’s no longer in a coma. He’s just awake. He sleeps, he sneezes, he eats, he burps, but it’s not like he gets out of bed,” he continued. 

“He’s very bedridden and still very dependent on us. On his good days, there is a form of communication, for example, confirmation with his eyebrows or a smile. But you notice that he can’t last that very long. We talk to him like he’s not sick. We take him into our conversations and we watch football with him in the living room, for example. Then he watches. You notice that he likes that very much.”

“He often shows emotions. Sometimes he is emotional, but often there is also a smile. That does us good. That makes you really appreciate a smile.””